Named to the Axial Advisor 100 (2026)
🌿 Landscaping M&A AdvisorySuccess Fee Only — No Retainer

You Grew More Than Grass. We Make Sure Buyers Know What Your Maintenance Book Is Really Worth.

Sell your landscaping business to top private equity, family office, and strategic buyers at premium valuations.

The platforms being built in landscaping are looking for route density, multi-year maintenance contracts, and ancillary services like snow and irrigation. If that is your business — residential, commercial, or both — buyers want to hear from you right now.

100sActive Buyers in Network
$500M+Aggregate Transaction Value
$10B+Platform Valuations Created*
100%Founder-First Approach

We now spend our time in landscaping, roofing, paving, and other exterior trades — working with the same institutional buyers who built the HVAC and plumbing platforms, now focused on your side of the market.

The Landscaping Market Right Now

Route-Dense Maintenance, Ancillary Services, and Platform Capital Are Converging.

Commercial and residential landscaping have attracted serious institutional attention for the same reasons HVAC did a decade ago: fragmented markets, recurring revenue, essential services, and a long tail of founder-owned businesses with no professional sell-side representation.

Platforms are being built. Buyers are writing checks. The thesis that PE buyers are underwriting is straightforward: a residential or commercial landscaping business with a dense maintenance route, strong account relationships, and ancillary services attached to those routes is a durable, recurring-revenue platform. It is hard to replicate the relationships. It is hard to break a well-priced, multi-year maintenance contract. And a business that has added snow, irrigation, or enhancement services to its maintenance base looks fundamentally different in a buyer’s model than one doing pure mowing.

The platforms being assembled in this market aren’t just looking for revenue. They are looking for operators who anchor a geography — companies that own a defined market, have branch managers or supervisors in place, and can absorb an add-on without the founder being the only thing holding the operation together. That is the profile that generates real buyer competition.

Enhancement and project work matters too, but buyers distinguish carefully between enhancement tied to existing maintenance relationships — work that recurs because the client relationship recurs — and pure project work chased on open bid. The former lifts value. The latter adds cyclicality. Understanding that distinction before you go to market changes how you frame your business and what you put on the table.

Sources: Bain & Company Global Private Equity Report 2024; Axial Lower Middle Market Report (trade contractor M&A activity).

Part of a Broader Exterior Trades Shift

Commercial and residential landscaping aren’t consolidating in isolation. Roofing, paving, and other exterior trades are all attracting the same capital at the same time — and the platforms being built across these trades are looking for density, diversification, and operators who can anchor a region. Multi-trade acquirers expanding across the exterior envelope are an active part of the buyer universe for landscaping businesses.

That expands your buyer pool and, in a well-run process, increases the competition for your business. Platforms already active in roofing or paving are evaluating landscaping acquisitions right now as a path to multi-trade coverage. A structured process captures all of that — not just the landscaping-specific buyers.

What Buyers Are Actually Underwriting

The Profile That Generates Real Buyer Competition

Not every landscaping business commands the same offer. The ones that attract real competition share a consistent profile — and understanding where you stand before you go to market changes the outcome.

Maintenance routes and multi-year commercial contracts.
A dense, multi-year residential or commercial maintenance book — property managers, corporate campuses, HOAs, municipalities — is the foundation of value. Buyers are underwriting the quality of that book: renewal rates, pricing discipline, contract terms, and how dependent those relationships are on the founder versus the company. Contractual, recurring revenue with documented renewal history is what the offer gets built around.
Enhancement and project work tied to existing relationships.
Enhancement revenue that flows naturally from the maintenance base — seasonal color, mulch programs, landscape renovation for existing accounts — reads very differently from project work bid on the open market. Buyers want to see that your enhancement book is driven by client relationships, not job boards. The mix matters, and so does the margin. We help you frame your revenue the way buyers will actually underwrite it.
Snow, ice, irrigation, and ancillary services.
Ancillary services attached to the core maintenance base are premium value drivers. Snow and ice removal turns a seasonal business into a year-round platform and dramatically changes the revenue model for a buyer. Irrigation, arbor care, holiday lighting, and similar programs add high-margin revenue with low marginal cost once the client relationship exists. Most sellers underestimate how much these service lines contribute to the transaction.
Crew depth, supervisors, and branch management.
These are labor-intensive operations and buyers model workforce risk closely. The key question isn’t just crew count — it is who runs the crews when the founder isn’t there. Businesses with branch managers, experienced supervisors, or a field leadership structure that doesn’t collapse around the owner are worth materially more. Low turnover and a reputation as a good employer also show up directly in how buyers model post-close risk.
Branch and route density, and account concentration.
A business that owns a defined market — tight geography, efficient routing, high revenue per stop — is more valuable than one running thin across a large territory. Buyers are building density. They also look closely at account concentration: if your top three clients represent a disproportionate share of revenue, that risk gets underwritten carefully. We help you see what your account book looks like before a buyer does.
Contracts, renewals, and pricing discipline.
Written, signed maintenance agreements with documented renewal history are a signal of professional operations that separates businesses in diligence. Buyers also look at pricing discipline: have you raised prices consistently, or are you holding legacy rates to preserve relationships? Pricing history tells buyers a lot about the quality of your client relationships and your operational confidence.

The same checklist shows up when buyers look at roofing and paving companies in the same market: recurring work and maintenance depth, geographic density, crew leadership, and documentation. We help you see your business the way they do — before they open your data room.

Ready for a frank view of your business?

If you want a quick, no-obligation read on how buyers would underwrite your business today — what it’s worth, where the gaps are, and whether a process makes sense right now — that’s exactly what the first call is for.

Talk About Selling Your Business
GHA in Landscaping

We Were in the Trades Before the Wave. The Same Is True in Landscaping.

Good Hope Advisors didn’t come to commercial or residential landscaping through a market report. We came through the platform-building deals that defined HVAC and plumbing consolidation — the early formations, before “home services roll-up” had a name.

The PE firms, family offices, and strategic acquirers we worked with on those early platforms are the same buyers now building landscaping platforms. When we call them, we aren’t introducing ourselves. We are calling buyers who have done deals with us, who know how we run a process, and who trust that when we bring them a business it is worth their time.

That distinction matters more than it might seem. Commercial and residential landscaping have attracted a lot of M&A advisors in recent years. Most of them arrived after the capital was already deployed. They know the multiples from deal announcements, but they weren’t in the room on the transactions that shaped how landscaping businesses get valued and structured. Those gaps show up in who gets called, how your business gets framed, and ultimately in what you receive at closing.

We work with residential and commercial landscaping businesses in the $2M to $50M revenue range, typically with EBITDA of $1M or more. Revenue mix shapes your buyer universe — we will tell you honestly how yours positions you and what a process would look like.

Eric, Josh, and Gregg are on your deal personally — no handoffs to junior staff running your process. Our fee is a success fee. We don’t get paid until you do.

Who We Work With

Founders Who Are Ready to Explore What a Sale Looks Like

Our best landscaping clients built their businesses through years of client relationships, route discipline, and a reputation for showing up every time — regardless of weather, season, or circumstance. Some are ready to exit entirely. Some want to roll equity and stay active as the business scales under a platform. Some need a structured, timed exit. We work with all three.

We work with residential and commercial landscaping businesses in the $2M to $50M revenue range, typically with EBITDA of $1M or more. That is where the active buyers are concentrated and where a well-run process generates real, competing offers.

Revenue mix shapes your buyer universe. Businesses with strong recurring commercial maintenance accounts typically attract the broadest buyer competition and the highest multiples, but residential landscaping contractors with solid route density, ancillary services, and clean financials have a real market too. We will tell you honestly how your mix positions you.

If you aren’t sure whether you are in range, that is exactly what the first call is for. No pitch, no obligation. An honest read on what your business is worth in the current market and what a process would look like.

Common Landscaping Founder Questions

What Founders Ask Before the First Call

How long does a typical sale process take?

Most processes run 5–9 months from first conversation to money in your account, depending on your readiness and buyer mix. We tell you upfront what to expect and where the variables are.

Does it matter how much of my revenue is residential versus commercial?

We work with both. Revenue mix does affect your buyer universe and your multiple — businesses with strong recurring commercial maintenance accounts generally attract the broadest buyer competition — but residential landscaping contractors with solid route density, ancillary services, and clean operations have a real market. We will tell you honestly how your mix positions you.

What if we do more project or enhancement work than recurring maintenance?

The question buyers will ask is whether the project or enhancement work is relationship-driven — flowing from existing client accounts — or open-bid-driven. The former is valued much more favorably than pure bid work. We help you frame your revenue mix in a way that reflects how buyers will actually underwrite it.

What if our EBITDA is under $1M?

There is still a market for smaller businesses, but the buyer universe and deal structures look different. On a first call, we will tell you honestly whether a process is worth running now or whether you should grow into a larger outcome first.

Do you charge upfront fees?

No. Our compensation is success-based. We don’t get paid until you do.

One Conversation. No Obligation.

We will tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. If a process makes sense, we will tell you. If it doesn’t, we will tell you that too.

Talk About Selling Your Business